Heavyweight Crew Depends On Six New Rowers to Fill Holes

Last season Columbia's Heavyweight Crew team finished the season with a respectable 4-4 and won three cups, including the inaugural Collins Cup in a battle versus Rutgers. If the team hopes to maintain or improve on that mark in 2002, they will have to do it without the help of five seniors who graduated last season. Despite losing those seniors, the team is confident as they prepare to begin the season this weekend against Rutgers.

"We have some younger guys who didn't get a chance last season due to those seniors," sophomore Jason Beattie said. "Hopefully we can make up for the experience with our fire to win."

Beattie will be one of six new rowers in the varsity boat this season. The line-up for the upcoming sprint this weekend will include Beattie, junior Rich Cacioppo, senior co-captain Gareth Eckmann, junior Jeffrey Fairchild, junior A.J. La Rosa, junior Peter Ottomanelli, sophomore Chris Underwood, sophomore Novak Vukasinovic, and junior co-captain coxswain Archie Ingersoll. Only Eckmann, Cacioppo and Ingersoll saw significant time in the varsity boat last season. Beattie and Underwood were not elgible to race in the varsity boat due to rules in the Eastern's that prohibit first-years from rowing in the varsity boat. The lack of experience has not prevented the team from being optimistic about the upcoming season.

"We have a much bigger team right now. It will be more competitive," Cacioppo said. "We will be more savvy due to the competition in practice. There's a lot to do to get where we want to be, but we are excited about the next two years."

"They are capable of doing it," Head Coach Scott McKee said on the Columbia Athletic website.

Eckmann will seen as a leader as both a captain and the only senior. This role fits Eckmann well, as he has three years of Collegiate varsity racing under his belt.

"He's great. He's the captain and he is playing the leadership role," Beattie said. "He has some of the best races in the recent past under his belt. There is nothing that can replace race experience."

"This first race against Rutgers is really big to set the tone for the rest of the season. If we can defeat them and then M.I.T. the next week, it will be nice for a young team to jump out to a 2-0 start," Beattie said.

Columbia started laying the groundwork for a successful season last fall when they raced in in the Head of the Charles and the Princeton Chase. Though their performance was disappointing in the Head of the Charles, they gained 20 to 30 seconds on some of~their competition in the Princeton Chase. Rowers on the team attributed the improvement to added experience, a change in equipment--they used an new Empacher brand boat in the Princeton Chase versus a Resolute boat--and a change in their line-up.

"They showed substantial improvement from the Head of the Charles to the [Princeton] Chase," McKee said on the Athletic website. "And since then, they've made even more improvement."

If the Lions continue to improve, it might not be long until they forget last season's five seniors.